JACKSON - A rabbi has filed a lawsuit against the age-restricted community where he lives, alleging he is a victim of illegal discrimination because of his disability and was prevented from practicing his religion.

Rabbi Philip Lefkowitz and his sons, Levi and Moshe, all use wheelchairs and live together in Westlake Golf and Country Club, according to the federal lawsuit filed Thursday.

The Lefkowitzes say in their lawsuit the Westlake Master Association, the community's managing body, and nine members of the board of trustees violated the federal Fair Housing Act and New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, as well as the community's own governing documents.

In a phone interview, Rabbi Lefkowitz said the lawsuit was his last resort after “two years trying to find some possible way to work it out with the neighborhood."

“I don't want to go to court but, at every turn, I get the same nonsense,” Lefkowitz said. “I should have my rights respected as an American citizen. I have rights just like everyone else and my rights are clearly covered by the law and I expect them to honor those rights."

Read the lawsuit in full at the bottom of this page.

Westlake Master Association President Bobbie Rivere, who is a defendant in the case, and attorneys for both Lefkowitz and the association did not return calls seeking comment.

There are two primary issues in the lawsuit, both arising out of the Lefkowitz family's observing its Orthodox Jewish faith. The lawsuit says the Lefkowitzes are the only Orthodox Jewish family living in the development.

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Rabbi Aaron Kotler and his family celebrate the holiday of Sukkot with prayer and a meal in the families sukkah. The prayer is performed with the Lulav and Etrog, a ritual meant to symbolize unity of people around the world.
Lakewood, NJ
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
@dhoodhood Doug Hood

Rabbi Aaron Kotler and his family celebrate the holiday of Sukkos with prayer and a meal in the families sukkah. The prayer is performed with the Lulav and Esrog, a ritual meant to symbolize unity of people around the world.
Lakewood, NJ
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
@dhoodhood
Doug Hood

Rabbi Aaron Kotler and his family celebrate the holiday of Sukkot with prayer and a meal in the families sukkah. The prayer is performed with the Lulav and Etrog, a ritual meant to symbolize unity of people around the world.
Lakewood, NJ
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
@dhoodhood Doug Hood

Rabbi Aaron Kotler and his family celebrate the holiday of Sukkot with prayer and a meal in the families sukkah. The prayer is performed with the Lulav and Etrog, a ritual meant to symbolize unity of people around the world.
Lakewood, NJ
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
@dhoodhood Doug Hood

Rabbi Aaron Kotler and his family celebrate the holiday of Sukkot with prayer and a meal in the families sukkah. The prayer is performed with the Lulav and Etrog, a ritual meant to symbolize unity of people around the world.
Lakewood, NJ
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
@dhoodhood Doug Hood

Rabbi Aaron Kotler and his family celebrate the holiday of Sukkot with prayer and a meal in the families sukkah. The prayer is performed with the Lulav and Etrog, a ritual meant to symbolize unity of people around the world.
Lakewood, NJ
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
@dhoodhood Doug Hood

Rabbi Aaron Kotler and his family celebrate the holiday of Sukkot with prayer and a meal in the families sukkah. The prayer is performed with the Lulav and Etrog, a ritual meant to symbolize unity of people around the world.
Lakewood, NJ
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
@dhoodhood Doug Hood

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They were repeatedly denied requests to build a sukkah and an enclosed porch that would have served as a sukkah on their property, the lawsuit says. During the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, which occurs in the fall, observant Orthodox Jews erect temporary structures called sukkahs near their homes and businesses where they eat and sleep.

While the Westlake board allows sukkahs, the permitted size was too small to accommodate Lefkowitz, his two sons and their wheelchairs, the lawsuit says.

And when the family attempted to build a screened porch that could serve as a sukkah, that was denied, too, the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit says the association board also refused the Lefkowitzes' requests to use a gate that would allow them easier passage to a relative's home on the sabbath, and refused to install a wheelchair-accessible route to the gate.

Instead, the Lefkowitzes must travel in their wheelchairs more than a mile on busy roads that in some parts do not have sidewalks and the risk of doing so prevented Rabbi Lefkowitz from attending a weekly prayer group, the lawsuit says.

Adherents to the Orthodox Jewish faith do not drive on the sabbath and many religious holidays.

An explanation of the Orthodox Jewish custom of an eruv, which has been controversial in northern Ocean County.
Wochit

Those decisions were eventually reversed after lawsuits filed by Orthodox Jewish residents or groups.

The lawsuit filed Thursday asks a federal judge to order the Westlake board of trustees to approve construction of a screened porch that can be used as a sukkah and install a gate and pathway that allow the Lefkowitzes' to observe their religious commandments.

It also seeks compensatory and punitive damages and legal fees, but does not include a specific dollar amount for those damages.